Update July 09, 2006: Thanks to Michael Schwitters I am able to add his photos of a September juvenile Baikal Teal from Shemya Island in the Aleutians, from 2005:
Juvenile Baikal Teal, one of at least four, Shemya Island, Alaska, September 2005. M. Schwitters:
- a careful comparison of this Baikal to the teal below reveals a great many similarities - indeed I'd say the above bird would be tough to accept as a Baikal Teal were it not for the photo showing the diagnostic pattern on the inner speculum:- an angled, almost horizontal boundary between the green and black; on carolinensis and crecca this boundary is vertical - i.e. parallel with the line of the body. Note also that the pale base of the bill is blue-gray, rather than the olive of the GW Teal .. I don't know if this is a good field mark or not.
This is a further page dedicated to demonstrating the extensive
variation in Green-winged Teal (Anas
{crecca} carolinensis). Except where mentioned,
all these photos were taken in Fort Worth, Texas:
